New library logo contains a misspelling

As an institution devoted to promoting literacy deliberately misspells its own name, we ask: is this a new logo trend for the text-speak age?

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The first rule of logo design has always been to check your spelling. But in the case of the new branding for the public library in Brooklyn, New York, it appear rules are made to be broken. For it has launched a new logo which has the second, third and fourth letters deliberately missing from its place name.

For an institution devoted to promoting literacy, it's an interesting choice to spell Brooklyn as 'Bklyn' - a spelling that also appears in the URL for its revamped website.

The old logo was functional but dull - and didn't reduce down well

The logo was designed by multidisciplinary design studio Eight and a Half, who are well known for creating logo designs for TV shows, including Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock and NBC's Olympics coverage.

The new logo replaces the minimalist black box-logo of old, and will clearly be more readable at smaller sizes - an important consideration in the smartphone age.

But whether the spelling decision will lead to the kind of traditionalist backlash that killed the University of California's aborted new logo remains to be seen. Update: Some, including the first commentator below, have pointed out that the new logo works as a clever play on words (turning 'Brooklyn' into 'Book-lyn'). Point taken, although if that was the intention, it was a bit too clever for us...